Pressure mounts on PM on two fronts as he heads to Downing Street for first week in office
As new PM Rishi Sunak begins his first full week in office, pressure is already mounting on him over his Home Secretary’s handling of the growing migrant issue – and over his own snub of the upcoming climate summit.
It emerged on Monday that more than 110 refugee charities have signed an open, and pointed, letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, calling for a “kind and effective system” for those seeking asylum in the UK.
Almost 1,000 migrants arrived in Dover on Saturday, and just a day later, a man hurled three homemade bombs from his car window at the Border Force centre where they were being processed.
The suspect then took his own life following the incident, Reuters news agency said.
At a fringe event during the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, Ms Braverman had said her “dream” and “obsession” would be seeing a plane taking off to Rwanda with migrants.
She has also said the only way for refugees to get into the UK is through a “safe and legal route”.
The letter read: “Home Secretary, when you talk of ‘safe and legal routes’, you must be aware that it is impossible to ask refugees to come exclusively through such a path when even Afghan interpreters who are eligible for one of our few existing schemes remain in hiding from the Taliban.
“When you talk of ‘illegal migrants’, you must be aware that the top nationalities of people making dangerous journeys include Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria, and that at least 97% of asylum claims made by people from these countries are successful.”
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, onboard a Border Force vessel last month
‘Intensify cruelty’
Sonya Sceats, chief executive of Freedom from Torture, said: “Every day in our therapy rooms, torture survivors tell us about the hardship that 12 years of anti-refugee policies have caused them.
“Suella Braverman’s policy proposals promise to intensify their cruelty.”
Six days after she was forced out for sending a sensitive document to a Tory backbencher and parliamentary staffer from a personal account without permission, wider questions about Ms Braverman’s return to the Home Office, continue to dog the Prime Minister.
Read more:
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The government is also facing demands for a probe into another security issue, amid reports former PM Liz Truss’s phone was hacked by Russian agents.
Meanwhile, there is growing disquiet with Mr Sunak, from within his own party, about his decision not to attend the United Nations climate conference in Egypt next week.
Mr Sunak’s earlier insistence he must focus on the “depressing domestic challenges” rather than go to the summit sparked a backlash in the Tory ranks.
The government’s climate tsar Alok Sharma said he was “disappointed” by the move, while Tory former chancellor George Osborne asked why Mr Sunak would “trash” the party’s record on the environment.
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, urged people to judge the government “by our actions” on the environment rather than COP27 attendance.
But then reports appeared in Monday’s papers the PM might, in fact, be U-turning on the decision and go to the conference after all.
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Of the migrant issue, a Home Office spokesperson said the UK had a “proud history” of providing protection “for those who genuinely need it”.
They added: “The public rightly expects us to control immigration, at a time when the number of people arriving in the UK via small boats has reached record levels, placing pressure on the asylum system and stretching our capacity to support those in need.
“We are using every tool at our disposal to deter illegal migration, disrupt the business model of people smugglers and relocate to Rwanda, those with no right to be in the UK.”
Downing Street has also been contacted for comment.
A police officer who was driving a van that followed two teenagers shortly before they died in an e-bike crash will not be prosecuted.
The deaths of Harvey Evans, 15, and Kyrees Sullivan, 16, sparked riots in the Ely area of Cardiff in May 2023.
The officer was facing a dangerous driving allegation but prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) statement said: “We fully understand that this will be disappointing news for the families of both boys and will offer a meeting with them to explain our reasoning further.”
Rumours on social media that the teenagers were being pursued by police were initially denied.
South Wales Police said none of its vehicles were in Snowden Road at the time of the crash.
But police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) later confirmed it was investigating after video appeared to show them being followed by a van – without blue lights or a siren – minutes before the incident.
Other footage, however, showed the van turn off and it wasn’t following the boys at the time of the collision.
A key factor under consideration was whether there was any point at which the actions of the officers in the van “constituted a pursuit”.
CCTV showed a police van following the bike moments before it crashed
Read more:
Timeline of events before fatal Cardiff crash
The driver and passenger of the marked police van were previously issued with gross misconduct notices.
A second investigation was also opened by the IOPC into issues including police management of the crash scene and treatment of the families.
Riots broke out in the Ely area after the boys’ death. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
A riot of several hours broke out after the boys’ deaths, with cars set alight and fireworks and other missiles thrown at police.
Eleven officers needed hospital treatment and 31 people were eventually charged.
The decision not to charge the police officer driving the van can be challenged under the victims’ right of review scheme.
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